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sanction
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
sanction
I.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
economic sanctions (=laws that stop trade with another country, as a way of forcing its leaders to make political changes)
▪ The UN threatened economic sanctions against the regime.
enforce sanctions
▪ The EU has threatened to enforce sanctions by blockading the port.
lift a restriction/an embargo/sanctions etc
▪ The government plans to lift its ban on cigar imports.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
criminal
▪ To these criminal sanctions against directors, section 242A adds civil penalties, against the company.
▪ The third bill treats unsolicited e-mail like unsolicited faxes and subjects the sender to potential criminal sanction.
▪ If these provisions are not adhered to, ensuing contracts may be unenforceable and criminal sanctions may follow.
▪ Male homosexual relations are still much more heavily restricted by criminal sanction.
▪ The threat of criminal sanction hangs over those who refute the constable's perception of events.
▪ To maintain criminal sanctions for a plant that is arguably safer than alcohol puts children at risk.
economic
▪ But what enables a state to resist the effects of economic sanctions?
▪ Finally, the courts have ruled that school boards can impose economic sanctions on teachers who go on strike.
▪ Unfortunately, never in contemporary history have economic sanctions felled a regime, no matter how weak.
▪ They were criticised for a cavalier approach to company expenses and for contravening the government's economic sanctions against Rhodesia.
▪ The move towards economic sanctions is necessary, unfortunately, but sanctions will take a very long time to work.
effective
▪ There is then no effective sanction against illegal tapping.
▪ The degree of mobility in modern economies generally precludes local communities from exerting effective sanctions on anything.
formal
▪ Like informal sanctions, formal sanctions may be positive or negative.
▪ These range from, market forces eg. the desire to maintain an unblemished reputation, to formal sanctions eg prosecution at law.
▪ Control of the beat officer through formal organizational sanctions had both negative and positive attributes.
▪ Government control depends on bargaining, rather than on formal sanctions that are generally ineffective.
▪ And yet those same acts today escape formal sanction.
international
▪ However, they called for the maintenance of international sanctions until a new political dispensation was in place.
▪ Harrassment of ethnic or religious minorities would result in various international sanctions.
▪ Detecting a weakening of international resolve on sanctions, Mandela responded angrily to the Western countries' positions.
▪ Vlok said that the money had come from a fund established to combat international sanctions.
▪ The real parallels, however, lie in the political reactions to international sanctions in both cases.
legal
▪ He repudiated his first wife and married a recognised Judaic princess, thereby seeking at least a form of legal sanction.
▪ The most frequent legal sanction imposed against corporations and their executives are fines.
▪ A third point of distinction concerns the nature of legal and market sanctions.
▪ Rights without the backbone of legal sanction, Bentham contends, is just talk.
▪ But this is not the imposition of a direct legal sanction.
▪ What is of relatively recent origin, however, is the creation of bureaucracies equipped with legal sanctions to regulate economic life.
▪ It was this case that first showed the considerable legal sanctions available against unions under the new legislation.
▪ Obviously, because the possession of heroin is illegal, users must maintain a low profile for fear of legal sanctions.
official
▪ Certain norms are formalized by translation into laws which are enforced by official sanctions.
▪ Even in San Francisco, perhaps the most AIDS-acclimatised city in the world, needle-exchange programmes lack official sanction.
▪ Both should receive official sanction and both require in-service training opportunities to acquire the necessary skills.
▪ This in effect recognized and gave official sanction to the thriving black market.
▪ Accordingly, Manville took out his code manual and began preparing an official sanction for despatch to Brussels.
▪ You've cleared official sanction for Operation Cuckoo to go ahead.
punitive
▪ It represents a number of auxiliary practices which make punitive sanctions more effective.
social
▪ There may be a variety of social sanctions which lead to a high level of participation.
▪ Basically, it consistsTraditional caste systems in which roles are assigned at birth and enforced by social sanctions.
▪ Judgements of worth and social sanctions are individuated and tailored to past commitments.
tough
▪ Dealing: The report urges much tougher sanctions on the suppliers of all illegal drugs.
ultimate
▪ Examples of the use of this ultimate sanction are few.
▪ The ultimate sanction may be for them to sack the person whom they regard as being mainly to blame.
▪ Only if its many controls fail will the ultimate sanction, i.e. revocation of the disposal licence, be invoked.
▪ War as the ultimate sanction was not a credible solution.
▪ The ultimate sanction is financial: an additional award of compensation.
■ NOUN
regime
▪ But the court held unanimously that the state's restrictions were overridden when Congress passed its own sanctions regime later that year.
▪ At the same time, international interests would like to ease the sanctions regime, particularly the trade embargo.
▪ According to U.S. and Western officials, Washington has quietly begun to review its screening of imports under the sanctions regime.
▪ Precisely because of the intense coercion caused by the sanctions regime and Western attitudes, all now stand behind the regime.
▪ Such a veto would be difficult to defend internationally and could well lead to an uncontrollable erosion of the sanctions regime.
▪ Meanwhile the flouting of the sanctions regime proceeds apace.
trade
▪ A more ambitious bill that would have ended virtually all trade sanctions was voted down earlier in the same house debate.
■ VERB
apply
▪ In the scenario, the United Nation applies sanctions to Korona and demands that it leave Kartuna by a certain deadline.
ease
▪ At the same time, international interests would like to ease the sanctions regime, particularly the trade embargo.
▪ The latest resolution proposes to ease sanctions after weapons inspections are resumed for an initial 120 days.
end
▪ A more ambitious bill that would have ended virtually all trade sanctions was voted down earlier in the same house debate.
▪ But nor is there a consensus on ending sanctions, thereby admitting that the policy of 10 years has failed.
enforce
▪ Certain norms are formalized by translation into laws which are enforced by official sanctions.
▪ Basically, it consistsTraditional caste systems in which roles are assigned at birth and enforced by social sanctions.
face
▪ Mercifully, Balestre subsequently retracted the ban on Goodyear, but emphasized that Cosworth and Ilmor would face serious sanctions.
impose
▪ A government or religion prescribes and imposes sanctions selected by their effectiveness in controlling citizen or communicant.
▪ Finally, the courts have ruled that school boards can impose economic sanctions on teachers who go on strike.
▪ The United States has not ruled out imposing sanctions.
▪ Even so, President Clinton had no choice but impose additional sanctions in response to the shoot-downs.
lift
▪ Britain said it was ready to lift the sanctions at once.
▪ In addition to abolishing the speed limit, the bill lifted federal sanctions against states without motorcycle helmet laws.
▪ Reagan lifted the pipeline sanctions and Britoil went up for sale and Lech Walesa was freed.
▪ Dissidents in Havana believe his regime would not long outlast the lifting of sanctions.
oppose
▪ Nor do I believe in deliberately making people poor: that is why I oppose sanctions.
propose
▪ The latest resolution proposes to ease sanctions after weapons inspections are resumed for an initial 120 days.
▪ The House is scheduled to vote Jan. 21 on proposed sanctions against Gingrich.
▪ The panel has wide latitude in proposing a sanction.
recommend
▪ Lawmakers and independent experts have expressed differing views on whether Gingrich can tap his well-stocked campaign fund to pay the recommended sanction.
▪ McGehee advocates the creation of an independent Office of Ethics Counsel to interpret the rules, investigate complaints and recommend sanctions.
▪ It said the housing authority had wasted money and approved contracts improperly, and recommended serious sanctions from the U.S.
support
▪ He said he would support harsher sanctions now being considered by Congress.
vote
▪ Late last year, the panel and House leaders agreed the House would vote on the sanction by Jan. 21.
▪ Under a schedule worked out earlier this week, the House would vote on the sanction no later than Jan. 21.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
clamp sanctions/restrictions etc on sb
crime-buster/budget-buster/sanctions-buster etc
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ He acted without religious or government sanction.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Britain said it was ready to lift the sanctions at once.
▪ Harrassment of ethnic or religious minorities would result in various international sanctions.
▪ Like informal sanctions, formal sanctions may be positive or negative.
▪ Mijic said his paper is facing an inner wall of sanctions, however.
▪ Polanyi would propose a world environment organisation with the right to impose sanctions on countries that refuse to cut emissions.
▪ Such sanctions are likely to make the child angry.
▪ This confidence was given a democratic sanction in the referendum of 28 September 1958.
▪ When I was there they were desperate for one and anxious that the sanctions should be lifted.
II.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
officially
▪ Blacks knew that every peaceful march and favorable court decision was being answered with acts of officially sanctioned violence.
▪ Beyond the category of leaks described above exists a second category: the officially sanctioned leak calculated to produce a specific effect.
▪ The live ammunition that I experienced was not officially sanctioned as being hazardous enough to be included.
▪ At best, this organization achieves a grudging, superficial conformity to officially sanctioned patterns of thought and action.
■ NOUN
scheme
▪ Any pertinent changes must be notified in good time if the court is to sanction the scheme.
▪ The court will not sanction the scheme if the requisite statutory procedures have not been complied with.
▪ The court will only sanction the scheme if it is reasonable.
▪ If the petition is successful a court order is drawn up sanctioning the scheme and confirming the reduction of capital.
▪ If this is not done, the court may exercise its discretion not to sanction the scheme.
■ VERB
refuse
▪ As a result the government may find itself forced into refusing to sanction new expenditure.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
crime-buster/budget-buster/sanctions-buster etc
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Gambling will be not be sanctioned in any form.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Allowing them to make such a decision does not sanction it - far from it.
▪ Nevertheless, extreme vigilance and monitoring are still needed each time a new product is sanctioned for release into the environment.
▪ Rabin told the Knesset that while he had sanctioned the use of force, he had never given illegal orders.
▪ Sefton council will consider whether to sanction the operation.
▪ There can be no art movement of the last 200 years that he has failed to sanction.
▪ They gave away small parcels, and even sanctioned the right to buy and sell property in the 1993 constitution.
▪ This judicial readiness to sanction rescue was revised in post-war years in the light of Bowlby's work on maternal deprivation.
▪ When used to sanction official disapproval of the Third Reich, this approach is unlikely to be controversial.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sanction

Sanction \Sanc"tion\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sanctioned; p. pr. & vb. n. Sanctioning.] To give sanction to; to ratify; to confirm; to approve.

Would have counseled, or even sanctioned, such perilous experiments.
--De Quincey.

Syn: To ratify; confirm; authorize; countenance.

Sanction

Sanction \Sanc"tion\, n. [L. sanctio, from sancire, sanctum to render sacred or inviolable, to fix unalterably: cf. F. sanction. See Saint.]

  1. Solemn or ceremonious ratification; an official act of a superior by which he ratifies and gives validity to the act of some other person or body; establishment or furtherance of anything by giving authority to it; confirmation; approbation.

    The strictest professors of reason have added the sanction of their testimony.
    --I. Watts.

  2. Anything done or said to enforce the will, law, or authority of another; as, legal sanctions.

    Syn: Ratification; authorization; authority; countenance; support.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
sanction

early 15c., "confirmation or enactment of a law," from Latin sanctionem (nominative sanctio) "act of decreeing or ordaining," also "decree, ordinance," noun of action from past participle stem of sancire "to decree, confirm, ratify, make sacred" (see saint (n.)). Originally especially of ecclesiastical decrees.

sanction

1778, "confirm by sanction, make valid or binding;" 1797 as "to permit authoritatively;" from sanction (n.). Seemingly contradictory meaning "impose a penalty on" is from 1956 but is rooted in an old legalistic sense of the noun. Related: Sanctioned; sanctioning.

Wiktionary
sanction

n. 1 An approval, by an authority, generally one that makes something valid. 2 A penalty, or some coercive measure, intended to ensure compliance; especially one adopted by several nations, or by an international body. 3 A law, treaty, or contract, or a clause within a law, treaty, or contract, specifying the above. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To ratify; to make valid. 2 (context transitive English) To give official authorization or approval to; to countenance. 3 (context transitive English) To penalize (a State etc.) with sanctions.

Related phrases:
WordNet
sanction

  1. n. formal and explicit approval; "a Democrat usually gets the union's endorsement" [syn: countenance, endorsement, indorsement, warrant, imprimatur]

  2. a mechanism of social control for enforcing a society's standards

  3. official permission or approval; "authority for the program was renewed several times" [syn: authority, authorization, authorisation]

  4. the act of final authorization; "it had the sanction of the church"

  5. v. give sanction to; "I approve of his educational policies" [syn: approve, O.K., okay] [ant: disapprove]

  6. give authority or permission to

  7. give religious sanction to, such as through on oath; "sanctify the marriage"

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Sanction

A sanction may be either a permission or a restriction, depending on context, as the word is an auto-antonym.

Examples of sanctions include:

Involving countries:

  • economic sanctions, typically a ban on trade, possibly limited to certain sectors (such as armaments), or with certain exceptions (such as food and medicine) like sanctions against Iran
  • international sanctions, coercive measures adopted by a country or a group of countries against another state or individual(s) in order to elicit a change in their behavior
  • pragmatic sanction, historically, a sovereign's solemn decree which addresses a matter of primary importance and which has the force of fundamental law

In other uses:

  • sanctions (law), penalties imposed by courts
  • sanctions, mechanisms of social control
  • sanctioned name, a special name in mycology
Related phrases:

Usage examples of "sanction".

But the constant crowd of adorers who went to worship the goddess, having sounded her exploits rather too loudly, the august Maria-Theresa objected to this new creed being sanctioned in her capital, and the beautfiul actress received an order to quit Vienna forthwith.

Even if Saddam intended only to threaten Kuwait, he should have recognized that such a demonstration of recidivist aggression would only ensure that the sanctions were maintained even longer, which is in fact what happened.

Whereas the mystique of military honor makes almost all punishments aleatory, save the two great sanctions, death and dismissal, both tantamount to dishonor.

Thus the threat of blacklisting would be an effective sanction to enforce compliance with arbitrated contracts.

They are organized based on various regions of the world where the UN has a sanctions regime in place: ISET Alpha is assigned to Asia and the Pacific.

Nancy Floyd got sanctioned, the JTTF kept its doors closed to key local investigators like Ronnie Bucca, evidence fell through the cracks, and the deadly al Qaeda juggernaut kept on churning.

Such a step, as I then thought, could but strengthen our love, increase our mutual esteem, and insure the approbation of society which could not accept our union unless it was sanctioned in the usual manner.

Noir told me that your niece was the daughter of a councillor, and I did not imagine that you would sanction her marrying beneath her.

It was not by itself a state of disgrace - it was often compared to a person becoming a monk or a nun - though if it had been imposed on rather than chosen by a Dweller it was certainly a sign that they might later become an Outcast, and physically ejected from their home planet, a sanction which, given the relaxed attitude Dwellers displayed to both interstellar travel times and spaceship-construction quality control, was effectively a sentence of somewhere between several thousand years solitary confinement, and death.

By eliminating the constant fights over the sanctions, inspections, no-fly zones, and so on, we would eliminate a major drain on U.

By no means: it was enhaloed now, set like a jewel in the great Medusa of the night, privileged by power and wealth and sanctioned by publicity.

While many of the Anabaptists were perfect quietists, preaching the duty of non-resistance and the wickedness of bearing arms, even in self-defence, others found sanction for quite opposite views in the Scripture, and proclaimed that the godless should be exterminated as the Canaanites had been.

This was not a matter of any difficulty, as the same operas were to be presented as had been already played at Aranjuez, the Escurial, and the Granja, for the Count of Aranda would never have dared to sanction the performance of an Italian comic opera at Madrid.

Republics, on the other hand, had perished by the conflict of liberties and franchises, which, in the absence of all duty hierarchically sanctioned and enforced, had soon become mere tyrannies, rivals one of the other.

Although the term leopard, as applied to panthers, has the sanction of almost immemorable custom, I do not see why, in writing on the subject, we should perpetuate the misnomer, especially as most naturalists and sportsmen are now inclined to make the proper distinction.